Job fairs will funnel candidates for Ballpark Village positions

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ST. LOUIS, MO (KPLR) – The day after the final 2013 game at Busch Stadium, Ballpark Village looked less like a construction site, and a little more like a true downtown hotspot. It offers the promise of a great night on the town, even when the Baseball Cardinals would not take the field.

“That’s when we do the hard work,” said Ballpark Village Chief Operating Officer Jim Watry. “That’s when we program our live music events. We have six major festivals planned. The Cardinals games are the 80 or 90 most exciting days of the year. And then, we do the hard work the rest of the days of the year to fill it up in February and Monday and Tuesday.”

The project got local tax incentives, so the St. Louis Agency on Training and Employment – SLATE – would help look for seven executives and at least 600 front-line hospitality workers.

“And by us being the workforce development arm for the City of St. Louis,” explained SLATE Adult Services Manager Stacey Fowler. “We provide them assistance with helping them fill the positions, recruiting for them, so they can get a good start in the city.”

“Or if, say, they worked in an industry that’s dyingand they want to get in something else,” Fowler adds. “We will help them understand how they can take their transferable skills and put them into a different field.”

What about military veterans whose technical descriptions of their relevant experience might mask their abilities from the civilian employers at Ballpark Village? Well, SLATE offered to help with that too.

“We will do a cross-walk with you to show you how you transfer those skills over so that you know exactly what’s out here and what’s available for you,” Fowler said.

SLATE will refer the candidates, but the final hiring and starting wages are up to Ballpark Village and its tenants. The PBR Bar is set to open at the village on Opening Day 2014.

SLATE will hold a job fair for executives on November 13, 2013 at its downtown offices. Registration is from 8:00a.m. until 6:00p.m. The job fair will run from 3:00p.m. until 7:00p.m.

All other candidates can visit SLATE for pre-registration. Openings for front-line hospitality staff will be announced in January 2014.